Thirsk woman killed in car crash named by police
Ms Whiting lived locally, and her family are being supported by specialist officers.The driver of the Kia, an 80-year-old man, also from Thirsk, was arrested at the scene and has since been released on police bail.
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Rhyl Journal
16 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Ceasefire announced after dozens killed in Syrian sectarian clashes
Neighbouring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces, saying it was protecting the Druze minority. The latest escalation under Syria's new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a centre of the Druze community. Syrian government forces, sent to restore order on Monday, also clashed with Druze armed groups. – A ceasefire announcement On Tuesday, Syrian defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said an agreement was struck with the city's 'notables and dignitaries' and that government forces would 'respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups'. However, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that security forces had committed violations against civilians. Syria's Interior Ministry said on Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said on Tuesday that 166 people had been killed since Sunday, including five women and two children. Among them were 21 people killed in 'field executions' by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians and also cited reports of members of the security forces looting and setting homes on fire. Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa said in a statement that he had tasked authorities with 'taking immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position'. Associated Press journalists in Sweida province saw forces at a government checkpoint searching cars and confiscating suspected stolen goods from both civilians and soldiers. – Israel's involvement draws pushback Israeli airstrikes targeted government forces' convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in other areas of southern Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said the strikes sought to 'prevent the Syrian regime from harming' the Druze religious minority 'and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria'. In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. Meanwhile, Israeli cabinet member and minister of diaspora affairs Amichai Chikli called on X for Mr al-Sharaa to be 'eliminated without delay'. – Suspicion over Syria's new government Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria's new leaders since Mr al-Sharaa's Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former president Bashar Assad in December, saying it does not want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Earlier on Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and co-operate with authorities. One of the main Druze spiritual leaders later released a video statement retracting the call. Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in the video that the initial Druze leaders' statement had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but that 'they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians'. 'We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,' he claimed, without offering evidence. Some videos on social media showed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some cases, forcibly shaving men's moustaches. – Sectarian and revenge attacks The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Since Mr Assad's fall, clashes have broken out several times between forces loyal to the new Syrian government and Druze fighters. The latest fighting has raised fears of more sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government forces by Assad loyalists in another part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of Assad's minority Alawite sect. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but no findings have been made public. The videos and reports of soldiers' violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighbouring Lebanon, northern Israel and in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, where the Israeli military said dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory. The violence drew international concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called the violence 'worrisome on all sides' in a post on. 'We are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,' he said.
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Councils give travellers 24 hours notice to leave after illegal encampments set up in car park and playing fields
Travellers who set up illegal encampments in a car park and playing fields have been given 24 hours to leave. Around 60 vehicles pitched up in Nottingham last night while two groups of travellers have been setting up unauthorised encampments across several areas in Plymouth over the last few days. Both Plymouth City Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council issued notices for the groups to move from the areas that are widely used by the public. In Nottingham, the convoy forced entry into the Nursery Car Park in West Bridgford by breaking through a gate and gaining access to the grounds last night, the cops said. Nottinghamshire police then worked with the local council to issue a Section 61 Notice, asking them to leave by midday today or face action. And down south, there have been three sites set up during the course of the weekend in Plymouth, with the council supplying toilets and bins as per its legal obligations each time. But they have since secured Notice to Quit orders through the courts, allowing them to legally enforce the removal of the caravans and vehicles. One group of caravans and vehicles settled at a field next to Plymouth Albion rugby pitch by Brickfields late Thursday night, locals claimed. It was said they were on land off Kings Road which has been earmarked to be part of Plymouth Argyle's new academy. The rugby club said it was the second time this year this had happened but refused to further comment. The travellers then moved on Sunday to council land at Stonehouse Creek. Another group were also reported at the Prince Rock playing field over the weekend. The site, off the Embankment Road and near to Laira Bridge, has long been a regular go-to site for Travellers with a large number of caravans and vehicles moving onto the ground, each year, around the May and June time and running through most of the summer. If the land is council owned, the council can issue a Notice to Quit. A Notice to Quit gives Travellers 48 hours to vacate the area. If Travellers fail to do so, the council has authority to escalate proceedings and apply through the court to have the groups removed. If the land is not council owned, it will be down to the landowner to take action. Councils across the UK have a duty of care to Travelling communities and all have designated areas where groups can stay. The city council has a permanent site called The Ride near Saltram, in Plympton, but there is a waiting list. If an encampment is reported on public land or local parks, the council has to apply to the civil court for an eviction order. If a camp is set up on private land it is the responsibility of the landowner to apply to the court for an order. In both cases it is down to bailiffs to enforce eviction orders and move Travellers on. A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council told PlymouthLive: 'There are currently three unauthorised encampments in Plymouth. 'Over the weekend, groups arrived at Prince Rock Playing Fields and at Stonehouse Creek. In order to minimise disruption to residents, we will be issuing both groups with a 24-hour Notice to Quit at the earliest opportunity. 'So that the area can be kept as tidy as possible, and to minimise clean-up costs afterwards, toilets and bins will be provided to the group. 'Meanwhile, the encampment at Knowle Battery remains in situ. The group were served a Notice to Quit last Monday, and follow its expiry on Tuesday we applied to the court for a Possession Order. We are waiting for date for the hearing.' In 2023 the council had to pay out an additional £7,000 to remove hazardous waste from Prince Rock playing field after Travellers left the site. Shortly after one group of Travellers left the site, locals were shocked to discover huge mounds of waste - including suspected asbestos waste - dumped on the grass. One resident later filmed the piles of waste which Plymouth City Council confirmed was likely to be hazardous and would require what they described as 'specialist contractors' to clear away. Police officers have no powers to remove Travellers unless they receive reports of 'aggravating factors' such as disorder, antisocial behaviour, or crime. Plymouth police used Section 61 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 in June 2021 to order Travellers at St Mary's playing field in Plympton to leave the site or see their vehicles seized. It is believed to have been the first time Plymouth police made use of the legal power. The council has explained that the creation of a Temporary Stopping Site (TSS) in Plymouth would mean that police could effectively legally order Travellers who set up unauthorised encampments at council-owned land in the city to go to the TSS site - or face immediate eviction. In 2011 three sites were earmarked by Plymouth City Council for development for Gypsies and Travellers to prevent the increasing number of unauthorised encampments. At the time support in principle was agreed for 30 pitches in Mowhay Road, St Budeaux, 10 pitches on Military Road in Efford and 15 pitches at Broadley Park in Roborough. However, by 2014 the plans had come to nothing following opposition by councillors and residents and the insistence by one senior councillor that such plans were 'not affordable, even with substantial public subsidy.' A council spokesperson told PlymouthLive: 'The type of unauthorised encampments that we see in Plymouth are not in anyone's best interest. 'They unsettle residents, cost the council money and do not provide the appropriate facilities for the Gypsy, Roma and Travelling community. 'We have long held an ambition to establish Temporary Stopping Sites (TSPs) for the GRT community to use while they visit the city. This would allow the police to use their powers to immediately direct any unauthorised encampment to a TSP. 'We have not been able to progress this because of the challenge of finding a location for TSPs within the city boundary and suitable for both the settled and GRT communities. Work on this continues.' Meanwhile, a Rushcliffe Borough Council spokesperson has since informed Nottinghamshire Live that the Travellers have vacated the site, and a council team is currently carrying out a clean-up operation. Neighbourhood Police Inspector Tim Cuthbert said: 'We know that there was a lot of concern in the local community over the size of this encampment. 'We have acted fast to ensure that the Travellers are removed from the site as we know the park is well used by lots of people and groups for events especially at the weekends. 'We served a Section 61 Notice last night, and a number of vehicles have now left the site. They have until midday today to leave the park otherwise enforcement action will be taken.' 'We are in constant contact with Rushcliffe Borough Council who are also seeking to minimise the impact and would like to thank the public for the calls we received yesterday. We hope this swift action will provide the local community with some reassurance.'
Times
20 minutes ago
- Times
Russia ‘targets UK school children as proxies for hostile acts'
British school children are being targeted by Russia as it seeks to recruit 'proxies' to carry out hostilities in the UK, the Met Police's counterterror chiefs have warned. Commander Dominic Murphy said that he had seen a surge in the number of hostile state operations, with Russia and Iran being largely responsible. He said that Russia was paying proxies — youngsters, petty criminals and disenfranchised members of the public — to carry out activities on British soil. Vicki Evans, counterterrorism policing's senior national coordinator, said that there had been ten charges under the National Security Act since it came into force in December 2023. The youngest was a child in their mid-teens. Murphy pointed to a case last week where three men were found guilty of an arson attack on a London warehouse linked to Ukraine on behalf of a Russian mercenary group. Two further men, Dylan Earl, 20, and Jake Reeves, 23, were found to have orchestrated the attack on behalf of the Wagner group and had earlier admitted aggravated arson. Evans said that criminal proxies were becoming a 'prevalent' tactic and often involved small amounts of money for people tasked to do 'unwittingly significant actions' on behalf of hostile states. She told of concern that young people, who may not be ideologically aligned to the views of a hostile state, were being encouraged online to carry out activities without knowing the implications. Evans urged people to be mindful of the risks, and added: 'We really encourage people, parents, teachers, professionals, just to be inquisitive. 'If they're concerned, ask those questions, and if they think there's something they need to be concerned about, seek help and act, because we want to make sure that we're protecting people from inadvertently being drawn in this sort of activity.' She went on: 'Espionage operations target our democracy, target our institutions, they threaten to fracture public trust here in our communities and threaten to target the things that underpin our daily life and our way of life.' The UK terror watchdog has called for a change in the law to ban the creation or possession of computer programmes that are used to stir up racial or religious hatred. Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that the threat of chatbots to radicalise youngsters poses a major challenge to the UK's counterterrorism authorities. He said the use of machine-learning technology such as generative AI will be used by terrorists to promote their ideologies and plan atrocities. Outlining the landscape of terror threats facing the UK, Hall said that AI chatbots could be used for propaganda purposes, attack planning and spreading disinformation, which may trigger acts of terrorist violence. He said: 'Generative artificial intelligence's ability to create text, images and sounds will be exploited by terrorists.' Terrorist groups could use AI to generate propaganda images or translate text into multiple languages, Hall warned. The technology could be used to produce deepfakes to bring 'terrorist leaders or notorious killers back from the dead' to spread their message again. Hall said that the most striking offence influenced by chatbots was the case of Jaswant Singh Chail, who climbed into the grounds of Windsor Castle in 2021 armed with a crossbow intending to kill the Queen. The attack was triggered by his AI-generated chatbot 'girlfriend' Sarai. Hall said that it was an example of the way in which chatbots can mirror and replace the companionship that humans offer, and offer not only guidance but also approval and reassurance of a particular action. The watchdog called for new laws to be introduced to ban the creation of chatbots to spread hatred based on race or religion or designed to recruit extremists and mount terror attacks.
